Building Materials Group CNBM Completes Acquisition of AVANCIS

The Chinese building materials and glass Group CNBM (China National Building Materials Group Corporation) has successfully completed the acquisition of AVANCIS, a German manufacturer of CIGS photovoltaic modules. Preparations to restart production in Torgau will be initiated immediately.

Following the announcement on April 22, 2014, the purchase of AVANCIS by one of the world’s largest building materials groups, the CNBM Group, has been successfully completed. With the completion of the acquisition, the German PV manufacturer is now a wholly owned subsidiary of CNBM headed by Dr. Franz Karg (CEO) and Oliver Just (CFO). The company will continue to operate under the name AVANCIS and produce and distribute PV modules under the PowerMax brand.

CNBM stated that preparations to restart an improved production process at the 100 MW plant in Torgau are to begin immediately. This will include new hires along the lines of the ramp-up plan. At the same time the Tech Center in Torgau and the R&D center in Munich will continue their research, development and small series production. The German pioneer in CIGS technology is focused on the production and continuous improvement of PowerMax®] SMART modules to be used for ground mounted systems and in the building industry.

A large majority of employees of AVANCIS has accepted their transfer to the entity.

AVANCIS develops and produces photovoltaic modules based on copper indium gallium di-selenide compounds, known as CIGS modules. The innovative manufacturing process is based on the third generation of CIGS technology, developed in its own R&D departments in Munich and Torgau and implemented in the production facilities in Torgau.


Roots of the AVANCIS technology can be traced back to the 1980s and the pioneering work of Arco Solar. Recently, AVANCIS reached an international champion value for a 30 x 30 cm² prototype module with an efficiency of 16.6% officially certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

CNBM was founded in 1984 and is the largest Chinese building materials group with a turnover of €30.8 billion and 180,000 employees in 2013. Main activities of CNBM are the manufacturing of a wide range of construction and insulation materials, flat glass and project planning of the production facilities.

CNBM has greatly expanded its activities in the field of wind energy and photovoltaics in recent years. In 2007, the Sinoi GmbH, a manufacturer of rotor blades for wind turbines and in 2012, the CTF Solar GmbH, a manufacturer of thin-film solar modules, were both acquired in Germany.